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Eardley Reflects On Campaign

Posted:
Wed 15 May 2013
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Defender Will Learn From Unsettled Season

The 2012/13 season was Neal Eardley’s fourth full term with The Seasiders and although the 24-year-old didn't make as many appearances as he would have liked over the course of the campaign, he is refusing to dwell on what has been a frustrating time.

The full-back played exactly half of Blackpool’s league games and says the events on and off the pitch have been a learning curve and will help him to develop as a player.

"I've obviously not played as many games as I probably would have liked, but there has been a lot chopping and changing within the club and sometimes that happens,” said Eardley.

“I won't get too down about it and it's up to me to learn from it and get on with it.

"I didn't play as many games as I would have liked but when I have played I will take from that what I thought I did well, and with the things I didn't do well I will try and improve upon it and look forward to next season.”

Eardley is one of several players out of contract this summer but when asked, the Welshman was clear where he saw his future.

"There's no reason why I wouldn't want to stay. I'm settled family-wise and we have got a great group of lads and some great players.

“It's been a bit of a false season for us this year to be fair. We played a team on the last day who were challenging for play-offs and I thought we were miles better and passed them off the park and I think that just goes to show what happens when we've got a nice surface.

"We've got players who are capable of doing worldy things on the pitch. It's not been a great season but we are safe. It's so tight this league.

“We beat Palace at home, who are in the play-offs, we went to Forest and should have won, who have just missed out on the top six, so you've got teams who are up there who we've done really well against in all fairness.”

Victories at Play-Off finalists Watford and already promoted Hull City suggest Blackpool have the capabilities to mix it with the top sides in The Championship and Eardley is hoping they can have more of an impact on the top echelons of the league next season.

The majority of the playing squad are now on holiday and where the off-season is generally the calm before the pre-season storm, it isn’t the case for Eardley who will be getting married on June 8.